Tag Archives: SNAP budget

Featured: Washington DC Chef-preneur & Micro-Greens Founder Allison Sosna

17 Aug

CHEF-PRENEUR & MICRO-GREENS FOUNDER ALLISON SOSNA (Forkly: @chefallisosna)

“Using it as a Chef, Forkly is a great tool for market research: to see what people want and where they’re getting it!”

As many of you know, Forkly recently hosted a DC happy hour at Hank’s Oyster Bar with Chef Alli Sosna. We wanted to meet some of our wonderful DC users, connect with fabulous local food bloggers & new friends, and most importantly, help raise awareness for Chef Alli’s most recent project, Micro-Greens: a program to teach kids (and their families!) to cook great, healthy food on a SNAP (food stamp) budget.

You can follow her culinary adventures on Forkly and learn more about her fantastic projects below, but before you do anything…there’s only 10 days left to donate… so take a look and help her launch Micro-Greens! The money donated will help buy aprons, support food costs and menu planning costs, pay salary for two part-time workers in the program, purchase basic equipment needs (bowls, spoons, spatulas, knives, cutting boards), and more!

More about Chef Alli:

Chef Allison Sosna is bringing healthy eating to the forefront thanks to her continuing love affair with cooking. Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in the farmlands of New Jersey, Chef Sosna eventually landed in Washington D.C. at American University. It was then, during her years as a rower, that she realized how important food was to the body and that it impacted not only how you felt, but how you performed.

This led Sosna to Italy to learn more about food and eventually to culinary school. She spent time working at Barton Seaver, The Inn at Little Washington, a Relais & Chateau property, and Dean & Deluca where she prepared meals for retail operations and large-scale catering projects.

Fast forward a few years – Sosna became a part of the culinary team at DC Central Kitchen, as an Executive Chef to aid in overseeing school food and catering services. This may have been the tipping point in Sosna’s career as from it, she created PINE Benefit Corporation.

Pine’s mission is to break the mold and do something different by creating positive change in the community using food-service related ventures. Most recently Pine launched “Cooking with Alli,” an online radio show (Tune in on Sundays, 6-7pm EST) on how to buy, eat, and cook healthy and see how others are doing so in the community. A percentage of Pine’s profits will go to launching Micro-Greens as well.

Along the way, Chef Alli has worked and talked with leaders from First Lady Michelle Obama to Chefs Alice Waters and Jamie Oliver about the state of food in America; competed on Food Network’s Thanksgiving episode of CHOPPED (2011); and received local awards and scholarships to move forward with her work to help promote healthy eating in American homes and schools.

To meet her in person, stop by the DC Green Festival on Sept 30, where Chef Alli will be speaking at 2pm, “Snap into the SNAP Program: Healthy Cooking on a Budget.” You can also learn more about Chef Alli’s endeavors on Twitter at @ChefAlliSosna and @MicroGreensDC–in the meantime, have a look of some of her delicious tastes below and follow her on Forkly…we know we’ll be watching closely as Micro-Greens, Cooking with Alli, and Pine take off!

Forkly Hits Boston!

2 Aug

We’re on a roll now so we don’t see any point in stopping this week! We just had two great Forkly events in Denver and Washington D.C.–and now we’re coming to visit you, Boston!

We’ll be meeting at Russell House Tavern (map) at 5 pm on Monday August 6 to enjoy Forkly talk, small plates and drinks– you can get a glimpse of the menu from Russell House Taverns’ Chef Michael Scelfo’s tastes on Forkly!


For those who can’t make it but want to meet with our @JSWAuer –or have some food writers, organizations, or chefs who must meet with her while she’s in town, be in touch! Always happy to make time for folks excited to become part of the Forkly community. Can email her at jossie@forkly.com.

And a special thanks to Chef Alli Sosna, Hank’s Oyster Bar, and all that attended the DC Happy Hour on Tuesday–it was great to meet all of you and raise money for a good cause! Keep on donating and spreading the word about her fantastic project.

That’s all for now…see you in Boston!